Modern Louisville

Gathering Together CELEBRATE THE SEASON WITH THE FAMILY YOU WERE BORN INTO, THE FAMILY YOU FOUND OR THE FAMILY THAT FOUND YOU NOVEMBER//DECEMBER

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Letter from the Editor Publisher Laura Snyder

My grandmother ran the show on Christmas Day – whether we liked it or not. Somewhere between Mrs. Claus and Ebeneezer Scrooge, she encouraged and promulgated holiday cheer while at the same time presiding over the scene with the authority and discipline of someone who would have their employees work on Christmas Day.

EDITORIAL Editor Remy Sisk Editorial Advisory Board Chair: Wil Heuser Thomas Carrier, Erika Chavez-Graziano Michael Drury, Chris Hartman, Kaila Story

Her strict adherence to process and decorum on Christmas Day was always met with lighthearted reluctance by me and my relatives, but at the end of the celebrations, we genuinely appreciated her unequivocal passion for the season and drive to “make” everybody have a good time. Well, we appreciated that and also the once-a-year buffet spread she would generously prepare for us.

Contributing Writers Tara Bassett, Trevor DeCuir, Kellie Doligale, Chris Hartman, Mariah Kline

ART

This quirky family repartee was just one of an abundance of aspects I cherished about the season while growing up. My grandmother passed away last fall, and last Christmas was, expectedly, just not the same. And only due to this striking shift in dynamic did I realize that when you’re so immersed in your own traditions and holiday ways, it becomes all too easy to forget that so, so many are not as fortunate to have the same home environment and love surrounding them that you do.

As UofL’s Brian Buford mentions to writer Trevor DeCuir in “Gathering Together,” our story on friendsgiving, “‘No one would ever tell you not to come home for Thanksgiving,’ – a lot of people think that, and it’s simply not the case.” It’s indeed not the case. In the season of coming together and embracing the family we were born into, there are those whose families do not welcome them to gather around the table at Thanksgiving or to light the menorah for Hanukkah or to wake up to the tree on Christmas morning.

This issue of Modern Louisville consequently celebrates not only the families that we were born into but also the families that we have found or those that have found us. From Tara Bassett’s “Found Families,” a story on the dynamic of drag families, to Gunnar Deatherage’s resplendent fashion spread “In Transit,” which explores the mobility and fluidity of “home,” this issue strives to illustrate the fact that home truly can be wherever you make it.

Until the day she peacefully passed last October, my grandmother insisted that the best parts of her life were when she was able to spend time with the family she formed. From those she was by blood related to, to those who would join our Christmas gatherings simply by choice, the people she loved and brought together were what truly shaped her as the woman my family and I loved, respected and admired. And one of the best parts about that was that “family” was always changing; there were those who would always stick around, but the additions and comings and goings of others, including perhaps the most recent member to join her family, my boyfriend Charlie, are what made Grandma Jo’s “family” so wonderfully unique, diverse and absolutely singular.

So now, in a time of such stark sociopolitical division in our commonwealth, I urge you to peruse this issue and welcome in the season as you – along with the rest of us – continue to carve out whatever it is that family ultimately means to you.

With gratitude,

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November • December 2016 ||| MODERN LOUISVILLE

PHOTO BY ZACHARY ERWIN

Production Director Joanna Hite Shelton Contributing Artist Gunnar Deatherage Contributing Photographers Clay Cook, Crystal Ludwick, Antonio Pantoja, Jacob Roberts, Nerissa Sparkman, Steve Squall, Tim Valentino, Bill Wine

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Gathering Together page 8

In Transit page 26

Ask the Expert: Curtis Green page 46

Modern Louisville One-Year Anniversary Celebration page 59

A Life in Activism page 15

table of contents NOVEMBER • DECEMBER 2016

Dismantling & Rebuilding Performance page 18

Making Ideas Realities page 40

Found Families page 48

Modern Vows page 52

Louisville Pride Festival page 61

The Rocky Horror Halloween Party page 64

I

t’s the Tuesday before Thanksgiving.

Londa Crenshaw and Paula White are pulling a Seussian stack of platters, casserole dishes, serving trays, muffin tins and pie racks out of storage. “It’s the only time I wish we had two ovens,” Paula laughs.

Londa fills in, “We’ll actually take a piece of paper and label each platter: corn stuffing, oyster stuffing, corn pudding. Because we really have to coordinate what goes in first.”

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The two women have been together for either 26 or 27 years depending on which one of them you ask. They share a home in the Irish Hill neighborhood and for 15 years have hosted a legendary friendsgiving celebration for anyone needing a family with which to spend the holiday.

“The first one,” Londa recalls, “I asked my co-worker Margaret what she was doing for Thanksgiving dinner. She told me she

was going to eat the leftover Chinese food in her refrigerator. I told her, ‘Like hell you are!’ Paula and I do not know how to cook for [only] two people.”

Each year, the guest list grows, and it is easy to see why. Paula and Londa have such a warmth for each other and anyone they welcome into their cozy home. A set of steps off the back of the house was designed to allow for more seating for guests. “If it’s nice out

gathering TOGETHER

Though family gatherings and occasions are integral aspects of the holiday season, one shouldn’t underestimate the comfort and sanctity of another kind of get-together: friendsgiving.

WRITTEN BY TREVOR DECUIR —

—

PHOTOGRAPHY BY NERISSA SPARKMAN —

—

FO O D A N D S E T: R Y E O N M A R K E T

that day, we’ll just put another table out here right up next to the steps so we can maybe fit more people in.”

A few miles away, Jesse AlFord holds an annual potluck. Five years ago when he was working in the lighting department at Actors Theatre, he found there were a lot of people who were not able to return home for the holiday. He and his wife, Starr, open up their home to a changing group of faces all

connected in some way back to that original core group of people.

Jesse uses each friendsgiving to fine-tune his recipe for cooking a turkey. One year, he decided to spatchcock the bird, which involves cutting along the breastbone so that it cooks faster. Now with a smaller oven, this has become his preferred method for getting the job done.

Paul Robey started his friendsgiving for

similar reasons. “I have a lot of friends who don’t have family in town or at all. A dinner gives a chance for everyone to get together and just be themselves. With your family celebration, you know the menu is never going to change, but with friendsgiving, you don’t know what kind of food is going to be there.”

Paul’s celebration has always included marginalized people from different walks of MODERN LOUISVILLE ||| November • December 2016

ANTONIO PANTOJA

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life: “A lot of people can’t come to Thanksgiving dressed the way they want to dress or with the partner they want to bring, but here, we just care that you’re here. We’re here for the camaraderie and the food.”

Not all of these holiday celebrations are about collecting those with nowhere else to go, however. Leah Roberts takes part in a yearly gathering with a group of friends she calls the Real Housewives of Clifton. They tend to meet the week after their traditional family gatherings and use it as a day to unwind.

“One of our friends is a high school teacher,” Leah says. “Every year, he puts together a quiz about the history of Thanksgiving. We all do our questions while we’re drinking, and whoever gets the most right wins a little prize!” Leah and Paul both recognize the importance of celebrating with friends in order to unwind from what can be a stressful holiday.

Still others, especially when you look at the full breadth of the LGBTQ community, do not have a true family or friend group to spend the holiday with. For these people, the LGBT Center at UofL holds an annual alternate Thanksgiving.

Brian Buford is the assistant provost for diversity at UofL and the director of the LGBT Center. The alternate Thanksgiving began in 2009 when Tommy Arnold, a local community organizer, spoke with several students at the university who expressed anxiety over the looming holiday.

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would be easy for it to leave the hands of the students and become about all of these wonderful community folks who hear that story and want to support it, but instead, if they want to dance, they get to move the tables back. They get to decorate. They get to decide what this is because that’s what this needs to be. It’s a space that reflects who they are.”

Nearly 100 people came to the first alternate Thanksgiving at UofL, and that speaks to the importance of these events whether they are held in an institution or in a friend’s home as there is a narrative that everyone has somewhere to go. “‘No one would ever tell you not to come home for Thanksgiving,’ – a lot of people think that, and it’s simply not the case,” Brian maintains.

Back at the Crenshaw-White home, Londa says, “A few years in, we began the tradition of going around the table and having everyone say what they were thankful for.

It’s the simplest things too. Good health, a roof over my head, my friends love me, I have friends, my job.”

Paula continues, “It’s just an excuse to be together with one another and love one another and eat. And drink! We just look forward to it every year. We be the mama bears.”

Arnold; his mother, Linda; Joe Alvey; and several friends cooked that first year what Brian describes as “enough food for the city of Louisville. Linda made loaves and loaves of bread. We didn’t know how many people were going to come.”

In more recent years, hosting duties have passed from Arnold and various community organizers to the LGBT alumni group at UofL. In all of this, though, the focus has always remained on the students.

“We let it be what they want it to be,” Brian emphasizes. “We realized as it grew that it

“A lot of people can’t come to Thanksgiving dressed the way they want to dress or with the partner they want to bring, but here, we just care that you’re here. We’re here for the camaraderie and the food.”

- PAUL ROBEY

MODERN LOUISVILLE ||| November • December 2016

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Recipes Baked Sweet Potatoes with Apricots and Bourbon “By keeping the door open to anyone, we end up celebrating a much larger community.”

Jesse AlFord

SUBMITTED BY JESSE ALFORD

Ingredients

1

Preheat the oven to 350º. In a small dish, pour bourbon over dried apricots and cover.

2

Pierce sweet potatoes several times with a fork and bake until potatoes are soft when pierced, about 90 minutes. Let stand until cool enough to handle.

3

Peel sweet potatoes and mash with brown sugar, butter and vanilla. Stir in the apricot and bourbon mixture, and spoon into a shallow 2.5 quart baking dish.

1/3 cup bourbon 1/2 cup chopped dried apricots 5 pounds sweet potatoes 1/2 cup packed brown sugar 1/3 cup butter 1 teaspoon vanilla

4 Bake uncovered until hot in the center (about 30 minutes). Serve warm.

Chocolate Chip Cookies SUBMITTED BY LEAH ROBERTS RECIPE BY DEBBI BORSICK

“Friendsgiving is just like Thanksgiving, except I can drink and cuss more!”

Leah Roberts

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Ingredients

1

Preheat the oven to 350º. Sift together the flour and baking soda, set aside.

2

In a large bowl, cream together the butter, brown sugar and white sugar. Beat in the instant pudding mix until blended. Stir in the eggs and vanilla. Blend in the flour mixture. Finally, stir in the chocolate chips and nuts, if desired. Drop cookies by rounded spoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets.

4 1/2 cups all-purpose flour 2 teaspoons baking soda 2 cups butter, softened 1 1/2 cups packed brown sugar 1/2 cup white sugar 2 (3.4 ounce) packages instant vanilla pudding mix 3 4 eggs 2 teaspoons vanilla extract 4 cups semisweet chocolate chips 2 cups chopped walnuts (optional)

November • December 2016 ||| MODERN LOUISVILLE

Bake for 10 to 12 minutes in the preheated oven.

Edges should be golden brown.

Since the people we talked to are something of experts on friendsgiving, we thought we’d share a recipe from each to give you a little cooking inspiration this holiday season.

Green Bean Casserole SUBMITTED BY PAULA WHITE

1

Preheat the oven to 400º. Bring a gallon of water and 2 tablespoons of salt to a boil in an 8-quart saucepan. Blanch beans by boiling them for 5 minutes then draining in a colander and immediately plunging them into a large bowl of ice water to stop the cooking. Drain and set aside.

2

Melt the butter in a 12-inch cast iron skillet over mediumhigh heat. Add the mushrooms, salt and pepper and cook, stirring occasionally, until the mushrooms begin to give up some of their liquid, approximately 4-5 minutes. Add the garlic and nutmeg and continue to cook for another 1-2 minutes. Sprinkle the flour over the mixture and stir to combine. Cook for 1 minute. Add the broth and simmer for 1 minute. Add the half and half and cook until the mixture thickens, approximately 6-8 minutes.

3

Remove from the heat and stir in about a quarter of the onions and all of the green beans. Top with the remaining onions. Place into the oven and bake until bubbly, approximately 15 minutes. Remove and serve hot.

Ingredients

“It’s the only time I wish we had two ovens.”

Paula White

1 gallon water 2 tablespoons kosher salt 1 pound fresh green beans, rinsed and trimmed 2 tablespoons unsalted butter 12 ounces mushrooms, trimmed and cut into 1/2-inch pieces 1 teaspoon kosher salt 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper 2 cloves garlic, minced 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour 1 cup chicken broth 1 cup half and half Large can French’s fried onions

Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Cranberries SUBMITTED BY PAUL ROBEY

“A dinner gives a chance for everyone to get together and just be themselves.”

Paul Robey

1

Preheat the oven to 375º. Toss Brussels sprouts in olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Cook on a baking sheet in the oven for 25-30 minutes, stirring once during cook time.

2

While the Brussels sprouts are roasting, cook the pecans and bacon. Toast the pecans quickly in hot olive oil over medium-low heat. If desired, cook the bacon in a sauté pan. Once cooked, chop into small pieces and set aside.

3

In a large bowl, add cooked Brussels sprouts, toasted pecans, chopped bacon, cranberries, maple syrup and apple cider vinegar. Toss everything together until evenly coated. Season to taste and serve.

Ingredients

2 pounds Brussels sprouts, trimmed and cut in half Olive oil Salt and pepper to taste 1/4 cup pecans 4 pieces of bacon (optional) 1/4 cup fried cranberries 1 teaspoon maple syrup 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar

MODERN LOUISVILLE ||| November • December 2016

13

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A Life in

ACTIVISM Wr i t te n by M a r i a h K l i n e / / P h oto g ra p hy by J a co b Ro b e r t s

While each activist in the LGBTQ community has made their own contribution to the cause, few can say that they have seen and done as much as Dawn Wilson. For over 20 years, Wilson has been making change not only in Kentucky but around the United States. Now having become the namesake for a scholarship at the University of Louisville, she reflects on the progress that has been made and what is still left to be done.

MODERN LOUISVILLE ||| November • December 2016

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Dawn Wilson at the University of Louisville, where a scholarship was recently named in her honor

W

ilson is an African-American transwoman who has fought in the nation’s capital and across Kentucky for the basic human rights that so many people are still denied. Marches on Washington, fairness law hearings and city council meetings are all familiar environments for her. She has testified before town hall meetings and met with hundreds of government officials to discuss the need for transgender inclusion in civil rights laws. Due to her countless hours of work and relentless determination, laws have gone into effect all over Kentucky to ensure fairness toward those of gender variance. She has trained lobbyists and other activists and been a resource to countless people in the LGBTQ community.

Her formidable success is due in no small part to her steadfast dedication and unwavering authenticity. “We laugh about who we are,” she says. “I’m not trying to hide from anybody – I’m just being me, and it does help.

Being yourself makes you more affable. Everybody knows, and I quit trying to hide from

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November • December 2016 ||| MODERN LOUISVILLE

ANTONIO PANTOJA

“We have a lot of work to do in this city, and it’s not over yet. Trans people are still discriminated against and are still told [by employers] that they are not wanted.”

things because if you try to hide things, it doesn’t help you; it makes you look absolutely horrible. Lying gives somebody credence to say something. I just choose to use my voice – I don’t hide it. I can’t hide it.”

Like so many LGBTQ individuals, Wilson knew from an early age that there was something different about her. She was raised by her aunt and uncle in Chicago after her parents passed away when she was a small child.

While many years went by before she told them she was trans, her aunt and uncle were

ultimately very supportive and did everything they could to encourage her during the process of transitioning.

When Wilson first began her journey, she had a difficult time finding resources in Louisville to turn to and had an even more difficult time finding other trans people of color.

She began spending time at the Louisville Gender Society and later got involved with the Fairness Campaign. She served as chair of the Committee for Fairness and Individual Rights (C-FAIR) for six years and still serves

on the board for the organization. She is currently working on elections and interviewing candidates in important roles that will affect the rights and well-being of the trans community.

Wilson also wants to draw attention to an issue that has gone mostly unaddressed in Louisville: trans homelessness.

Children as young as 7 or 8 years old have been kicked out of their homes after their parents discovered they were transgender, and none of the shelters in Louisville will admit anyone unless they will identify as their birth gender, making matters worse for those who are already frightened and homeless. The closest shelter that will accept someone who is trans or in the process of transitioning is located in Cincinnati. Wilson and other activists are currently working to C o u r te sy Fencing champion Dawn Wilson resolve this issue for those children and young adults who have nowhere else to go.

In addition to helping young ’90s, she created both a mailing list and an people, one of Wilson’s primary areas of ac- online organization for transgender people of tivism is defending the rights of trans people color. Through these collaborative projects, in the working world. Side by side with other people could reach out to her and other acactivists and allies in the late 1990s, she ex- tivists directly, increasing visibility and incluperienced great success when fairness laws sion for those who so badly needed it. were passed in Louisville and Jefferson CounWhile Wilson is proud of her accomplishty. But since she played such a pivotal role ments and all the progress that has been in the passing of these laws, she and other made, she understands how far there still members of the Fairness Campaign fell out of is to go. “We have a lot of work to do in this favor with many companies in Louisville, and city, and it’s not over yet. Trans people are she was unable to find a job despite her many still discriminated against and are still told qualifications. [by employers] that they are not wanted,” she Wilson could barely pay her rent, and discloses. many advised her that she may never be able Wilson is currently in her second term as to find work in Louisville again. However, she a commissioner on the Louisville Metro Hukept applying and eventually learned that man Relations Commission, a job she does Charter Communications was hiring. She not take lightly. “I represent the city and the was offered a job on the spot at her interview good that we have in this city,” she says. “Reand stayed on with the company for 11 years. gardless of what goes on, I still go in and do Having experienced employment discrimi- my job no matter what.” nation herself, she has worked tirelessly to One of Wilson’s many strengths as an acensure that others do not have to endure the tivist is her professional demeanor and varied same injustice. experience. Having an M.B.A. from the UniThough her work has largely been focused versity of Kentucky and having worked in the on the community as a whole, Wilson has also fields of politics, technology and communidone a great deal of good for individuals who cations, she understands the importance of are seeking out others like themselves. In the having a sharp public image and maintaining

that image. This applies to her now more than ever since she has become the namesake for a scholarship that is the first of its kind.

The Dawn Wilson Scholarship for LGBTQ+ Students of Color is the official name of the prestigious award that will benefit undergraduates at UofL. “The scholarship gives the opportunity to all of those kids of color who don’t feel that they belong anywhere,” Wilson describes.

“They’re going to one of the best schools in the country for LGBTQ students, and these kids are going to make a difference in the community. They’re going to be the counselors, doctors, teachers, et cetera, who are going to lead by example. They’ll be able to say, ‘I was able to do this and so can you.’ It’s important to me that these kids have the P h oto means to do that.”

In addition to being a role model, community leader and influential activist, Wilson is also a nationally recognized fencer. She was a national champion in 2014 and 2015 and won the North American Cup championship in 2015. She has earned gold medals and defeated some of the best fencers in the nation. She also acts as a coach and takes lessons herself in order to constantly improve her performance. “Fencing relaxes me,” she relates. “It’s what got me out of my shell early on.”

When she’s not working, volunteering or fencing, Wilson can also be found participating in the spiritual community. She attends Edenside Christian Church and serves as an elder at Douglass Boulevard Church.

Dawn Wilson’s accomplishments are endless, and her impact on the LGBTQ community is immeasurable. Her influence and hard work have completely changed the way transgender people of color are treated in Kentucky and around the nation. As for what she has learned along the way in the world of activism, Wilson devoutly believes in the value of authenticity and doing the work no one else wants to do: “You have to be yourself and you have to lead by example. You can’t just say it, you have to show it, too.”

MODERN LOUISVILLE ||| November • December 2016

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&

Dismantling rebuilding Performance

Written by Kellie Doligale

M

ore than ever, the most basic and essential functions of our humanity are transcending personal lives and finding themselves at the center of the socio-political stage. As gender and sexuality have leapt to the forefront of the greater cultural conversation in the last decade, we understand them not as succinct definitions but as spectra, on which exist any number of identifications, variables and preferences.

As this comprehension has grown, so too do we find ourselves living in a social age that encourages us to “tread lightly,” so it stands to reason that presenting these dynamics as facets of entertainment is delicate, even risky. In speaking to some of the people behind Louisville’s robust theater community, however, the curtain is pulled back to reveal a genre that allows interpretation before judgment, a notion that escapes real life all too often. The very quality that makes theater

18

November • December 2016 ||| MODERN LOUISVILLE

superficial is in fact the quality that often makes it more welcoming and introspective.

From across the gamut of theatrical productions in this city, ranging from traditional to unconventional, straightforward to abstract, the widely-held consensus among creative leaders is that to portray gender and sexuality sincerely, they must be evoked as part of a complete character. Just as they are pieces of a real human life but not the entire picture, they are qualities for an actor to draw on but not the whole production.

“From my own directing point of view, that’s where I start: finding the dignity and the fullness of the characters and their stories,” says Michael Drury, producing artistic director of Pandora Productions. “I feel a great deal of responsibility.” Since 2000, Drury has helmed the company, whose mission is to present theater relating specifically to the LGBTQ community.

Jennifer Thalman Kepler and Laura Ellis in “Alice in Black and White” with Looking for Lilith

PHOTO BY HOLLY STONE

ANTONIO PANTOJA

MODERN LOUISVILLE ||| November • December 2016

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Jessica Frances Dukes in “Macbeth” with Actors Theatre of Louisville

“I think if you asked our audience, they would say the reason they love watching our shows is that no matter what the character is, who or how they identify, we’re playing those people as fully realized human beings with hearts and minds,” he continues. “With good theater, that’s what we should be watching no matter who the character or what their sexual preference or gender.”

Actors Theatre of Louisville Artistic Director Les Waters echoes the significance of such full-bodiedness in a character, further stressing the beauty of imperfection even in the noblest of protagonists. “I think it’s important to show,” he explains, “that whatever your gender, we live in very complicated times and we’re fallible human beings. Putting goodness on stage regardless of gender isn’t particularly interesting. It somehow

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November • December 2016 ||| MODERN LOUISVILLE

“

You just have to be alive to the world that you live in and be aware of repercussions.

”

LES WATERS, Actors Theatre of Louisville

implies there’s no conflict and that there’s this perfect human being. I personally have yet to meet one.”

For some productions, gender or sexuality are footnotes of the character, and for others, they are a central theme. Like Pandora, local company Looking for Lilith explores the stories of a selected group, namely women. Currently celebrating their 15th anniversary, they originally showcased only original works, but in recent years, they have worked to include already-written plays that adhere to their mission of giving a platform to unheard female voices.

According to Head of Productions and Resident Director Kathi Ellis, doing so means striking the right chord between empowerment through inclusion and an accurate definition of feminism, which she stresses

PHOTO BY BILL BRYMER

does not include the stereotyped intrinsic resentment of males. “Frequently, the protagonists are the female characters, but we’re always interested in telling the stories of the men who are allies, friends and activists of the issues that we’re addressing in our piece,” Ellis says. “Occasionally, that also means that the male characters are the antagonists. It’s a really interesting line to balance.”

Ellis further explains that Lilith takes inspiration from poignant perspectives in history and brings them to light either through an actual historical representation or a composite fictional character. The creation of

University, which accepted only 15 students in the acting department annually – 10 men and five women “because they wanted as part of their program for everyone to get significant time on stage; therefore, they filled their department according to viable roles” – Woolley moved to Denver as part of a repertory company.

“We were doing a lot of work that was considered edgy,” she recalls, “and I took that at face value. But after a couple years doing that, it became really clear that the roles available to me were the prostitute or the haranguing bitch.”

or hundreds of years ago present their own challenges as well as permissions, according to Amy Attaway, associate artistic director at Kentucky Shakespeare. She explains that while a piece may be historical and verbose, it is not necessarily restrictive. Those very traits, in fact, leave it more open to adaptation, and, by proxy, the audience can deduce their own meanings in the poetry perhaps more so than is possible with a 20th-century – or more recent – play.

Shakespeare, she says, is frequently prone to gender-swapped roles or all-one-gender productions with romantic relationships a

Tony Milder, Jon Huffman, Abigail Bailey Maupin, Gregory Maupin and Sarah Jo Provost in “The Taming of the Shrew” with Kentucky Shakespeare

such characters is necessary to accurately represent the variety of women’s faculties throughout history. Company founder Shannon Woolley discloses that Lilith’s manifestation and mission sprung from her own experiences as a young theater student.

“There have been women playwrights forever,” she contends, “but they haven’t been in the public eye.” Woolley contends that the American theater canon does not necessarily reflect the material available but rather the works considered viable or classical. After earning her B.F.A. from Southern Methodist

PHOTO BY HOLLY STONE

Looking for Lilith’s current season opened with “Legacy of Light,” a play that juxtaposes Emilie du Chatelet, physicist, mathematician and aristocrat most often remembered in history as Voltaire’s lover, with 21st century astrophysicist Olivia. From their respective places in time and influence, both women grapple with their journeys to motherhood amid a backdrop of science and mortality.

These are the roles often dismissed for women, both on stage and in much of the world.

While much of theater exposes us to a bygone time, pieces actually written many tens

constant part of the exposition. While the material presents some challenges from its distant place in history, Attaway believes an audience can take away timeless vantage points with adjustments to the tone behind the dialogue.

When she directed “The Taming of the Shrew” two years ago, Attaway was cautious to present a piece that concludes with the central character delivering a monologue about the importance of female subservience to male counterparts. “For me, the production turned into a story not about a shrewish

MODERN LOUISVILLE ||| November • December 2016

21

woman being subdued but rather about two people – a man and a woman – who felt that they needed to put on masks or shows for the public,” she says. “Her disguise was the shrew and his was a brash, loud man. Through the course of the play, they discovered that they could take off their masks with each other.

The final monologue became like her inside joke performance for him.”

Throughout the month of October, Kentucky Shakespeare presented the bloodiest play from the theater titan’s career, “Titus Andronicus,” aptly from PLAY Louisville’s warehouse space in Butchertown. Attaway notes perhaps one of the most indelible elements of the piece is the tragedy’s distinct use of violence and sex, both amorous and forcible, directly for the audience to view. “Something particularly shocking about it is the rape,” she points out, “which is very blatant and plotted.” While it would be possible to view the assault at face value, it seems pertinent to

take more from a 16th-century playwright’s vision of an act that has its own “culture” in present day. As the play and scene have aged together, they have somehow become intrinsically more robust and effortlessly developed deeper and richer subtext, ripe for a 21st-century reexamination.

With variant phrasing, this resident body of stage artists collectively comments on the audience’s permission to gather what they will from any given performance – the recurring privilege granted to the theater-goer that lingers on the ride home as they recollect the images and dialogue from the last two hours or so. Great theater is often described as transcendent, enveloping the audience in a story with meticulous planning and memorization. How, then, is the game changed when the element of dialogue is removed entirely?

Robert Curran, artistic and executive director of the Louisville Ballet, believes that reliance on the body alone proves a

significant asset in depicting a character’s orientations, both sexual and often more importantly, emotional. “I feel that dancers have a bit of an advantage in that they have such a profound knowledge of their bodies where they can take their arms, legs, posture and head line in really any direction,” he explains. “They spend all day every day basically naked in front of a mirror looking at themselves and each other, touching each other in places that you just normally wouldn’t. There’s a physical intimacy about a group of dancers that extends far beyond the normal intimacy. Their level of comfort with their bodies and their expression of whatever they’re trying to communicate, they really do take it to an extreme.”

What might seem extreme to an audience member is an organic evolution among dancers, who seemingly exist on an elevated plane of rapport. “Once you’ve been rehearsing for an hour and a half and you’re

Roger Creel and Benjamin Wetzel in “What Light Is to Our Eyes” with the Louisville Ballet

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PHOTO BY SAM ENGLISH

“ No matter what the character is, who or how they identify, we’re playing those people as fully realized human beings with hearts and minds.

”

MICHAEL DRURY, Pandora Productions

dripping with sweat, both sliding off of one another, catching, touching and sometimes kissing, you lose your inhibitions a bit in that aspect of communication. It does extrapolate any expression, that level of intimacy that exists between human beings in a ballet company, whether it’s male-female, female-female, male-male, they’re all very much connected with each other. You can’t fake it when you’re in that kind of proximity.

You can do it half-heartedly, but you definitely can’t fake it.”

Most recently, Curran choreographed “Swan Lake,” regarded by many as the ultimate ballet. Though it’s been performed many times over, with this version, Curran sought to amplify the concepts of masculine duty and feminine power. He focused intention on the contrast between the authoritative queen urging her son to choose a wife and the delicate Odette, whose stereotypical fragility wields its own power by entrancing the prince.

In the classical theater canon, one need not look hard to find stereotypes permeating any given story. What becomes evident, however, is that the literal and metaphorical stage given to such stereotypes allows the opportunity to see why or how they came to exist in the first place.

PHOTO BY MICHAEL TAGGART

Carol Tyree Williams, Bryce Woodard, Tony Prince, Jason Cooper and Eric Sharp in “Casa Valentina” with Pandora Productions

Waters highlights Actors Theatre’s October run of “Macbeth,” “which has one of the most famous roles for a woman, Lady Macbeth,” he says. “It’s one of the two major characters in the play and central to it who talks about sexuality. The play is a huge debate about male performance – what men think they are. I think in this particular instance, gender is explored in a great way by a master playwright.” His sentiments echo Attaway’s assertion that a play need not be modern to be presently relevant.

“It’s not telling you what to think, it’s just allowing the current state of the world to exist through these actors about a play that deals universally with questions of power or domination and what they mean,” furthers Actors Theatre Associate Artistic Director Meredith McDonough.

“Productions will shift according to the actors in it and what they bring to the roles,” Waters continues. “It’s our job to think of classic plays as if they’re new. Everything was a new play once, and we have to go into it and explore it according to the director’s vision.

If Meredith did another production of ‘Macbeth’ next year, it would be very different.

You just have to be alive to the world that you live in and be aware of repercussions.”

Like any form of entertainment, theater

is subject to scrutiny depending on an audience’s expectations or impressions, hence repercussions. “I don’t think that what we do is frightening, but I’m not naïve enough to think that it’s not frightening for everyone,” Drury says of Pandora’s commitment to legitimizing the lesser-told stories. “While LGBTQ people have made a lot of progress in the last five to 10 years, there’s still a lot of fear around our community. We are who we are, and if somebody goes to our website to buy tickets and they see a picture in the banner of two men dancing, that could scare people and I’m aware of that. Aware, but disappointed.”

What better reason, though, to go to the theater? What better environment to be scared, to be enlightened, to be transported?

We exist in a time when visual entertainment is accessible in our pockets. We play, pause, stop, subscribe, record, rewind, review...how often do we reflect? Many among us will sooner watch a scene of torture to be scared before we embrace depictions of our society, past and present, reflected back at us to allow extraction from the comfort zone.

With regard to gender and sexuality explicitly, there hardly seems a better medium to posit their significance and subtlety as parts of a complete person and their story.

MODERN LOUISVILLE ||| November • December 2016

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making ideas realities Written by Remy Sisk // Photography by Antonio Pantoja

“There could be this magical place where people could go for everything and feel safe and accepted and know that who they are is totally great – even if it’s in this one-block radius, they’re there,” smiles Anna Giangrande, program director at Louisville Youth Group. What she’s referring to is Louisville’s first ever LGBTQ+ Community Center, which is the ultimate fiveyear goal of the newly formed LGBTQ+ Community Coalition.

Several dedicated representatives from different community organizations have recognized the need for a center or at least some sort of collaborative where the various nonprofits could work together, but two of the individuals who are taking these very possible ideas and actually facilitating them into reality are Josh Miller and Theo Edmonds of IDEAS xLab and Creative Agents of Change Foundation.

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Josh Miller and Theo Edmonds of IDEAS xLab and Creative Agents of Change Foundation

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41

The genesis of the coalition came when Giangrande ran into Rachel Lighter of Transwomen National one night. Though the concept of a coalition or a center had been discussed before, there was something about this night that solidified it in Giangrande’s mind as a true, concrete aspiration. The two talked about the needs for what Giangrande calls “a one-stop shop” where various LGBTQ nonprofits could come together, utilize each other’s resources, work together on planning events and provide a safe and collaborative space for the different organizations and community at large.

“I’m the kind of person who when I decide I’m going to do something, I just do it,” Giangrande affirms. “So we talked about it, and I said, ‘I’m going to do it. I’m going to send out an email.’ I don’t know if [Rachel] thought I was for real or not, but I did it!”

That email gained the immediate support of the Kentuckiana Pride Foundation as well as Transwomen National. The groups convened and started discussing what exactly it was they wanted to accomplish, but once Miller and Edmonds joined the conversation, the stakes suddenly got much higher.

Edmonds originally had reached out to Giangrande after hearing about the important work she was doing in the community – with Louisville Youth Group as well as the 42

November • December 2016 ||| MODERN LOUISVILLE

coalition. At the time, the regular coalition meetings were consisting primarily only of Giangrande along with Kentuckiana Pride Foundation board members Allen Hatchell and Aaron Angel, but with the passion of the group as fervent as ever, Edmonds was ready to help put a plan Anna into action based Giangrande on the groundwork the group had laid.

“They at the time were talking about just forming a new nonprofit essentially where all the nonprofits could work together,” he recalls, “and since that’s in the wheelhouse of IDEAS xLab, I said, ‘You really want another nonprofit? Is that what you’re looking for?’ And no, what they wanted was a new community center. And we started to talk about what that meant and the social, emotional and physical well-being of the LGBTQ community and what that could look like. And that’s how we started on this fiveyear plan.”

“I don’t know if you’ve ever had a conversation with somebody where you walked away and you just knew everything was going to change, but that’s how I felt after my conversation with Theo [Edmonds],” Giangrande recounts. Indeed, while the coalition already had tremendously strong footing and was on track to effect real community change, this project fell right in line with what IDEAS/ CAC does on a daily basis and consequently made Miller and Edmonds natural fits as partners in the project.

“Essentially what we do – we’re a bridge-builder and a facilitator,” Edmonds describes. “And so we’ve got a lot of very strong conceptual frameworks that we’re able to bring to the table to help people think through things that are, by their very nature, messy. When you say a community center, you could talk to five different people and you’re going to have five different conceptions of what that means based upon what their own personal lived narrative is. And

so what we do is help sift through all that information and use it and put it in a workable form that can be used to build upon, and then eventually, we will help with the fundraising and actually engage some artists at some point too who can actually help us move the project forward and tell the story.”

“A lot of the work specifically with IDEAS that we’ve been doing is serving as a backbone to bring different sets of partners together – just in the way that we were formed and the way that we operate – partnerships and working across different sectors is vital to what we do,” Miller echoes. “But Theo and I are artists, so we think in a little bit of a non-traditional way. So bringing that type of thinking in partnership with Louisville Youth Group and Kentuckiana Pride and the different partners and lending the support of the type of project and structure and framework that we normally do is one of the things that we’ll offer.”

It’s that breadth of knowledge and experience in realizing community goals that work toward the overall health of society that truly illustrated to the preexisting coalition partners how genuinely integral IDEAS/CAC’s involvement was going to be. “Prior to Josh and Theo joining the coalition, we were moving along with the project, but they helped to better define it and accelerate our progress,” explains Allen Hatchell, secretary of the Kentuckiana Pride Foundation’s board of directors. “They bring tremendous knowledge and resources that we need to be successful.

Having a true understanding of health equity and the well-being of our community is important to the success of the center. We must meet the needs of the people we will serve, and the only way to do that is to connect with those people in the beginning and allow them to give us the framework for our foundation.”

“I’m the kind of person who when I decide I’m going to do something, I just do it.”

Anna Giangrande

The first town hall meeting for the LGBTQ+ Community Center

One of the first steps toward putting these conversations into action was announcing a series of town halls to take place over the fall and early winter of 2016 to hear thoughts from the community itself regarding what kind of shape this LGBTQ+ center should take. And the coalition is emphatically making concentrated efforts to ensure they hear from the whole community, including people of color as well as the disabled, elderly, rural and others whose voices are not always heard as they should be.

The first town hall was held on September 28 at PLAY Louisville, and with a crowd that surpassed expectations, it seemed more believable than ever that this plan was going to be not only successful but resoundingly celebrated.

“It was very surreal at our first town hall to go from talking about these things and COURTESY PHOTOS

planning it to seeing people interested in it and showing up and excited to give their information,” Giangrande enthuses. “I’m like, ‘Here we go. This is happening. We’re going to help make this for everybody, and that’s going to be so fabulous.’” Hatchell was equally encouraged and reaffirmed in the coalition’s ambitions: “The ideas and discussions that came from that event really showed us Allen Hatchell at the first that we were on town hall the right path, meeting that health is greater than just the physical and our programs and services needed to be holistic to meet the financial, social, emotional, etc. needs.”

Miller meanwhile notes that the diversity in attendees, which was possibly thanks to the coalition’s specific outreach, was particularly impressive, and that’s something that Edmonds insists is of the utmost importance in moving forward with the plans for the

“The ideas and discussions that came from that event really showed us that we were on the right path.”

Allen Hatchell center. “I think more than anything these town halls, yes, they will help us to create a community center that people all feel that they have a hand in – those who wish too because we’re not going to convince everybody – but more than anything else, my hope is that what this does is over the course of the five years – and this will be an evolutionary

MODERN LOUISVILLE ||| November • December 2016

43

process – is it shows how truly diverse and rich our community is in its variations and its personalities. … And the LGBTQ community is not represented by upper-midTheo Edmonds dle-class white men.

It’s just not, and I think there’s a tendency in the media and others to represent our community from that very one demographic. And that is only a sliver of who we are as a community.”

Following the town halls of 2016, the coalition hopes to travel to other cities with strong LGBTQ centers, such as Los Angeles and Nashville, and study their sustainability model, their offerings and how they were able to appropriately and successfully meet the community. Then in the fall of 2017, further town halls will be held to synthesize that information and put a comprehensive plan in place so that the team can move into 2018 ready to fundraise.

Edmonds certainly looks forward to being able to pare down the seemingly endless pool of possibilities and defining the center, for the end product will be so much more than just a place of collaboration for the LGBTQ community: “Having a place like the community center where that positive expression can happen – that’s a very beneficial thing not just for the individual but for the entire community because an individual who is able to more fully inhabit their person and who they are is going to be a much more contributing person to society around them, so everybody’s going to benefit from it.”

Giangrande similarly anticipates witnessing how the center will be able to change the city – how not only its LGBTQ citizens will have a place of resource and empowerment but also its society as a whole will see real and noticeable positive growth.

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Josh Miller

“Everything I’m putting all my energy and effort toward in my days is going to help the people of this community and improve the community, and that’s a very satisfying feeling,” she maintains.

“I just can’t wait for it to open and for people to have their space and see how that will change things for us as a city.”

Miller relates that there are about 20-30 different LGBTQ-oriented nonprofits in the city, and the goal over the next year or two is to get every single one of them on board as a partner.

Modern Louisville has already joined, and it’s certainly not too late to add your name to the list; becoming a partner in this project and ensuring you and your organization are proactive components of this conversation is one of the most critical aspects to its success. As Miller emphasizes, “Once the doors open on the center in 2021 – or whichever year it ends up being – we want everybody to walk in and say, ‘I have ownership in this because I helped to build it.’”

For more information on how to become a part of the LGBTQ+ Community Coalition, visit lgbtqlou.com.

“My hope is that what this does is over the course of the five years ... it shows how truly diverse and rich our community is in its variations and its personalities.”

Theo Edmonds

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Curtis Green Northwestern Mutual

The concept of money – budgeting, planning, saving – can be scary. It’s especially intimidating when you stop and wonder if you’re taking the right steps for your future. To help put some minds at ease and make the notoriously enigmatic world of finance a bit more accessible, Modern Louisville spoke with Curtis Green, a financial representative for Northwestern Mutual.

What should young, single professionals be doing to best manage their finances?

That’s a great question and one that I’ve found not enough people are addressing.

There are some basics that apply regardless of age, income or lifestyle.

1. It begins with a budget. The simple premise is that you cannot spend more than you bring in. Hold yourself accountable to live within your means. If this has been historically challenging, work with someone to build a game plan.

2. Have some money in the bank. Life is unpredictable. Building up a savings account means you can afford the unforeseen financial challenges without going into debt. Be careful though – too much money in the bank can be inefficient.

3. Address the debt in your life. Maybe you have student loans or a car loan.

Maybe you hit the club or have gone out to eat a few too many times and accumulated some credit card debt. Debt limits your financial freedom. Create a plan for eliminating bad debt and managing good debt.

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November • December 2016 ||| MODERN LOUISVILLE

4. Start thinking about the future. What do you see? How does it change from where are you are today? Will you be able to afford it? With financial planning, you can create the life you want to live. Enlist help from a financial professional who will help you look at the entire picture and address the uniqueness of your situation.

My partner and I are discussing getting married. What should we consider first?

It’s no secret that money creates stress in relationships – in fact, it’s a common cause for divorce in the U.S. Anytime you are looking to share a commitment with another person, you need to begin with an honest and open conversation – and part of that has to do with attitudes and feelings about money. Discuss each person’s longterm and short-term goals – personal, professional and financial. Will you combine finances or maintain different accounts?

Is there debt that the other person needs to know about? Do you see eye to eye on daily spending?

All of these items can create conflict in the relationship and in your financial

health if not addressed. Start developing a plan to reach your goals while simultaneously living life well today. There are a number of resources available that can assist and make this conversation a little easier to facilitate. Quizzes and calculators that assess your financial fitness or money personality are a good start. Talking with a professional is also a great first step.

What is a financial plan?

Each of my clients would explain their financial plan differently. That’s partly because they all have unique goals. One might explain it as a roadmap to retirement. Another might say it’s the plan that allows them to travel the world. However, the reality is that the basics of the financial plan are the same. First, it should be a written plan that can be regularly reviewed to track progress. The plan should also be customized to your specific goals, both long-term as well as short-term. As I previously mentioned, it begins with a budget so that you can understand income versus spending.

Secondly, we’ll create a plan that will address debt and any upcoming large expenditures such as a home purchase. The plan will also identify and minimize exposure to the curveballs life tends to throw at us. We plan through savings methodologies, estate planning documents and insurance programs. Finally, we discuss retirement and long-term goals – mindful always of getting to that finish line.

Curtis Austin Green is an insurance agent of Northwestern Mutual, the marketing name for The Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company, Milwaukee, WI (NM) (life and disability insurance, annuities, and life insurance with longterm care benefits) and its subsidiaries.

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Because Everything

Francheska Robles a.k.a. Chaos the Drag King Papi and Missy Jackson a.k.a. Mystikal

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PHOTO BY CLAY COOK

found FA M I L I E S Writte n by Ta ra B a ss ett

“Family.” It can mean anything from a unit of cohabiting parents and children to a block watch operating in a : a group of people who are related to each other neighborhood. The Connection (1986-Merriam-Webster 2016, R.I.P.) was a gathering place for families of choice, straight or gay, to enjoy and nurture each other and escape the outside world that didn’t always embrace them. When George Stinson and Ed Lewis’ entertainment complex opened, it was said to be the biggest thing to hit Louisville. Down to Hurricane Summers’ last dance, The Connection drew guests from far and wide, frequently hosting megastars like Lady Gaga and the cast of “Wicked.” Right up to its closing, it never lost its personal, hometown feel. This diverse gathering ground gave birth to local drag families.

The concept of a drag family manifests in a couple different ways. One is of course the obvious where a drag mother “adopts” new queens called drag daughters or where drag kings lead the way for their drag sons. But the mentorship of drag families can also transcend simple instruction and create a new clan of choice for someone who’s been kicked out or disowned by their biological family. Whatever the reason one enters a drag family, however, it’s certain that they’ll not only discover a sheltering home away from home but also a mentor and teacher who will guide them through the unparalleled ups and downs of the world of drag performance.

family

MODERN LOUISVILLE ||| November • December 2016

ANTONIO PANTOJA

49

Mykul J. Valentine

The platforms worn by queens make Fashion Week models look like they’re wearing flats, and the finessed disappearance of certain body parts could require Michael Carbonaro to retake Magic 101. From the top of their bewigged heads to the twinkle of their great big toenails, a baby queen’s appearance, demeanor and talent are directly attributable to the hard work of her drag mother. According to my “source” (Hurricane, of course), she also slaves over a hot stove for them, breaks a ton

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November • December 2016 ||| MODERN LOUISVILLE

of acrylic nails performing emergency heel repairs and drives hip-deep in snow to get them to the stage on time!

I’ve always enjoyed Hurricane’s onstage persona, but I’ve loved her more for her kindness to younger performers, as witnessed on backstage visits at The Connection over the years. I called on my old (I mean long-time!) friend to explain the intricacies of this distinctly modern family brought together by butt pads and surgical tape, wild wigs and long lashes.

“I have seven baby girls,” attests the diminutive whirlwind, who offstage sometimes goes by the name of Scott Sastre. Known for her onstage comedy that turned the air bluer than the cigarette smoke that once was legal in bars, Hurricane Summers reigned over The Connection for 20-plus years. In her familiar smoky growl, this drag mother extraordinaire explained the significance of the “connections” that bind. “Men who entertain as women are known as drag queens. Misters, male leads or boy drag are men who entertain as men. Women who entertain as women are called femmes or divas, and then there’s the exception of the more rare “faux queen” – a real woman dressing in drag who looks like a drag queen. Last but certainly not least, drag kings are women who entertain as men.” Got that? There will be a test!

A drag parent is someone a new queen or king can rely on. Drag mothers and drag fathers mentor their young, teach them how to walk and talk onstage and instruct them on how to apply makeup and dress for performances, among other skills.

“All my kids are doing really well,” boasts the proud progenitor. One of the tornadoes spun off by the Hurricane is her “son,” Mykul J. Valentine. A Mr. Entertainer of the Year 2011 and the reigning Mr. Continental 2016, Mykul began his entertainment career at 18 as a go-go boy and stripper. He graduated to The Connection’s house act, “La Boy La Femme,” and shares that, “Hurricane was the first one to reach out and take me under her ‘wig.’ She offered me advice, and when I started competing, she mixed my music, made or helped me buy my costumes. … She did everything she could to help me succeed.”

Now, Mykul is a drag father who helps his own drag sons do pretty much what queens do: lip sync on stage, build their characters, create costumes and learn to move to the power ballads that the club drag shows embrace. “Boy drag is usually about celebrities like Adam Lambert or Elvis, but in my case, it’s different!” Mykul laughs.

Superheroes are a new twist on an old theme of celebrity impersonation. Mykul’s

PHOTO BY STUDIO 351

Hurricane Summers

playful style inhabits one of his own “sons,” Judas Elliott, the reigning Mr. Entertainer of the Year 2016 who now lives in Florida. Judas rocks heroes from Superman to Pokémon.

“When I started entertaining five years ago, I remember seeing Mykul perform at an EOY preliminary and I thought, ‘I want to do what he did!’ I’ve learned a lot from my drag dad.”

Mystikal, a.k.a. Missy Jackson, has been a drag king for five years. You can see him at PLAY Louisville on most Fridays and an occasional Saturday. He was EOY 2012 and is part of a fairly famous line, starting with Mocha Montrees as his drag grandmother, Kelly Matthews as his drag mother and TJ Montrees as his drag father. When Mystikal saw a fresh entertainer named Chaos perform on amateur night at PLAY, the youngster “blew me away. I immediately offered to be his drag father.”

“He’s an incredible drag father,” Chaos says of Mystikal. “He showed me the ropes; he was really enthusiastic. He acts like a biological dad, ‘That’s my boy, that’s my son!’ He chose me. We don’t choose our drag fathers.”

Chaos the Drag King Papi – his full name – was EOY 2015. In real life, the 27-year-old is Francheska Robles, a U.S. Postal Service supervisor who also serves in the U.S. Army Reserve. Both employers know that Robles becomes Chaos on a performance night, and several co-workers have attended his shows.

Does her family accept her? (Onstage in makeup as a man, Chaos uses the male pronoun. Outside of makeup, she prefers the female.) Robles proudly relates, “My mother is very excited about my career. She’s full of creative ideas and she loves to come to my shows.”

PLAY Louisville is undoubtedly the future of drag in Louisville. Hurricane has in fact taken her show across town to the bar Micah McGowan and Todd Roman opened in 2013. This multi-purpose entertainment venue is going after every demographic from those who love Bingo (Sister Bingo Sundays) to the open stage Hot Mess Wednesdays.

They’re also following in the footsteps of

PHOTO BY ANTONIO PANTOJA

many Louisville businesses, including The Connection, in organizing and hosting major fundraisers for nonprofits such as House of Ruth, and this past summer, they held an enormous gathering for the victims and survivors of the Pulse nightclub massacre.

Family homes may be sold or demolished, members may move away, but do you ever leave a drag family? It appears to be much like regular old run-of-the-mill folks. You stay together through thick and thin, but if you

make someone mad enough, you could possibly be disowned, according to Valentine. In that case, you can always become a mama or daddy and start your own “line”!

Gay nightclubs are sanctuaries in which relationships started and ended, marriages were made, families founded and equality was finally celebrated. Those ties that bind will never be broken, and drag family reunions are guaranteed to continue for a long, long time.

MODERN LOUISVILLE ||| November • December 2016

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modern vows

Sheldon Burton & Mike Tomes September 10, 2016

Why The Louisville Palace and Mercury Ballroom?

We decided on The Palace due to the history, the elegance, the beauty and the drama. The Palace was a venue that absolutely spoke to us and gave us those “take your breath away moments” every time we walked under the marquee and through the doors.

Sydney O’Bryan, the coordinator, also gave a great first impression as well. The first walk-through impression was big to me, as I knew I wanted someone who was truly going to care about me and Sheldon having the best day possible and who I knew would collaborate with me on helping my vision of this wedding come true. As an advocate for LGBTQ rights and a member of FEVA, I knew she would only have our best interests at heart.

Did you always want a big wedding?

We did actually. A lot of people chimed in on this topic telling us “what we should have” with some downing the fact we didn’t want to do a smaller-scaled, more intimate wedding (something they more so saw fit for themselves). However, Sheldon and I and the ones who know us BEST know that we love and enjoy the moments of a good shindig. I am a host at heart and I love to throw parties (preferably themed), and being that I help recruit and help coordinate a lot of other people’s parties in Louisville, I personally wanted this to be my best work yet and make it extremely special, not so much for me but for Sheldon as well. We wanted to have the time of our lives and enjoy every moment of it, and we did just that!

-Mike Tomes

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November • December 2016 ||| MODERN LOUISVILLE

VENUE: The Louisville Palace and Mercury Ballroom OFFICIANT: Kelly K. of 99.7 WDJX RINGS: Genesis Diamonds FLOWERS: Charles Patrick at Old Louisville Flower Studio CAKE: Heather Banks MUSIC: DJ Ryann Coxx, Paige Allen, DJ Syimone for the after party at Nowhere Bar PHOTOGRAPHER: Zymage LLC

Want your wedding featured in Modern Vows? email vows@modernlouisville.com

MODERN LOUISVILLE ||| November • December 2016

ANTONIO PANTOJA

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with CHRIS HARTMAN

YOUR

VOTE counts 54

November • December 2016 ||| MODERN LOUISVILLE

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t’s safe to say that we all want to defend our homes. If folks seeking harm were knocking on our doors, we’d rush to stop them.

They’re here. Opponents of LGBTQ rights are beating down the doors of Kentucky’s House of Representatives – the last state chamber held by Democrats in the entire South – and if we don’t act swiftly and decisively to stop them, we’ll lose whatever LGBTQ rights we’ve won in our commonwealth.

The thinnest of margins – 53-47 – holds back the floodwaters of virulent anti-LGBTQ legislation in Kentucky. Without House Democrats, Kentucky could have already become North Carolina, hemorrhaging talent, tourism and corporate tax dollars as a result of anti-LGBTQ laws.

Kentucky can’t afford it.

In January, state Republicans rushed to codify “Separate But Equal” marriage licenses in Kentucky – one for straight couples and one for gay couples. In February, they sought to strip local Fairness Ordinances in eight Kentucky cities with a “License to Discriminate” bill. Last year, we became the first state in the nation to try to ban transgender students from the bathroom.

House Democrats stopped every single one. If they lose the House on Election Day, Kentucky’s fate is all but sealed.

Reports estimate North Carolina’s anti-LGBTQ House Bill 2 could cost their state up to $5 billion a year. They’ve already lost hundreds of millions. The NBA, NCAA and ACC recently removed scheduled games from the state and sent them to cities like Louisville, where LGBTQ people are protected from discrimination.

But our benefit could be brief.

Even though Louisville made history in October by once more earning a perfect

100 percent score from the Human Rights Campaign for LGBTQ inclusion – one of the only cities in the South to earn the distinction – our city’s Fairness Ordinance could be on the chopping block when the Kentucky General Assembly convenes in January.

State and national funds are pouring into key Kentucky House races to flip control of the chamber. If they’re successful on Election Day, the Kentucky Senate – 27 Republicans, 11 Democrats – will barrel through a barrage on anti-LGBTQ bills in the first weeks of the General Assembly, and they’ll have a Republican-controlled House to help them for the first time in nearly a century.

Once these bills reach Kentucky Governor Matt Bevin’s desk, it’s over. Even though he worked with us to create a single marriage license form earlier this year, his recent actions indicate he’ll affix his signature to any legislation negatively affecting LGBTQ people, especially transgender folks. In the past several months, he’s joined states like North Carolina in two federal lawsuits blocking transgender bathroom access. That could just be the beginning.

The stakes couldn’t be higher for Kentuckians on Election Day, and not just for LGBTQ rights – for women’s reproductive rights, unions, voting rights and racial equity, which all affect LGBTQ people.

Go vote on November 8. Find out where at elect.ky.gov.

The Fairness Campaign’s Political Action Committee, C-FAIR, issues endorsements in key races every election cycle.

You can find them at fairness.org or on our Facebook page.

Don’t sit idly by while we’re in danger – protect your House!

Dine. Support. Connect.

Date:

Friday, November 18th

Time:

7:00pm • Cocktails 8:30pm • Dinner

Venue:

The Henry Clay 604 S 3rd Street Louisville, KY 40202

J

oin us for the fifth annual Feast on Equality. This dinner and social event was established to increase community awareness and raise needed money that will allow LGBT organizations to expand their services to provide opportunities to at-risk LGBT youth that they wouldn’t have received otherwise. You’ll meet the people who are changing these young people’s lives and see first-hand the impact they are having. Be a part of this effort that every day changes the lives of young people for the better.

BE A PART OF SOMETHING BIGGER! Reserve your seats! Visit www.feastonequality.com

community calendar FEATURED EVENT

Feast On Equality is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization with the sole purpose of raising funds for at-risk LGBTQ youth by hosting its signature fundraising event to engage the community and create awareness surrounding the issues that our LGBTQ youth face. Funds raised will directly impact their lives and create countless opportunities that they wouldn’t have received otherwise. Given the impact that Feast On Equality has had across UofL’s campus over the past four years, it is now broadening its reach into the community by supporting a few additional organizations such as Louisville Youth Group. This year’s event will take place on November 18 at 7 p.m. at The Henry Clay. “Sometimes,” says founder Tommy Arnold, “we have to stand together as a community to be the voice for those that might not have the strength in that moment.”

Feast on Equality

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MORE INFO feastonequality.com

“The Abduction from the Seraglio” Presented by Kentucky Opera True love wins in this hero’s tale of romance and rescue. “The Abduction from the Seraglio” is the story of a lady in distress and her dashing nobleman. He seeks to rescue her and her maid from the passionate designs of the Pasha Selim. Mozart features a comic yet menacing tyrant in Osmin, the harem’s watchman, who tries to separate the lovers. Fortunately, the hero saves his sweetheart and revenge is mercy when the Pasha Selim joyfully decides to let romance take its course. The opera is sung in German with spoken dialogue in English and English supertitles. Performances will take place November 4 at 8 p.m. and November 6 at 2 p.m. in the Brown Theatre.

MORE INFO kyopera.org

Transwomen National Banquet Transwomen National will hold their second annual banquet at the University Club at the University of Louisville on November 5 from 5:30 to 9:30 p.m. This year’s event will feature keynote speaker Dr. Tom Aberli and will honor Ally Award winner Michael Aldridge of the American Civil Liberties Union of Kentucky, Ally Award winner Brown-Forman and Purple Butterfly Award winner Alaina Kupec.

MORE INFO transwomennational.org

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November/ December

November • December 2016 ||| MODERN LOUISVILLE

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“The Blood Always Returns” Presented by Roots & Wings with The Kentucky Center Two young people struggle with their own identities and the issues they see in their community. These problems come to the forefront as they examine what it means to be black in Kentucky. Exploring the histories of Africa, Kentucky and their own family, they develop an understanding of who they are and the roots of the challenges in their community. Performances will take place November 5 and 6 in the Bomhard Theatre at The Kentucky Center for the Performing Arts. Tickets start at $25.

MORE INFO rootsandwingsart.org

“Mothers and Sons” Presented by Pandora Productions Funny, provocative and poignant, this 2014 Tony nominee is a timely and touching new play that explores our evolving understanding of what it means to be a family. It follows Katharine Gerard on an unexpected visit to meet with her late son’s former partner, who is now remarried and raising a child. Forced to consider the life her own son might have led, Katharine must now come to terms with her own life choices and how society has changed around her. The show runs November 10-20 in The Henry Clay Theatre. Tickets are $20 in advance.

MORE INFO pandoraprods.org

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LGBTQ+ Community Coalition Town Hall Meeting If Louisville is to realize its full potential as a compassionate city, it must support building a community in which everyone can be healthy, equal and complete members of society. A coalition of LGBTQ+ community organizations and allies is coming together with the goal of establishing a new LGBTQ+ Community Center in Louisville dedicated to the social, emotional and physical well-being of our community. This is the third in a series of LGBTQ+ Town Hall events that took place this fall.

The purpose of these events has been to begin enlisting the support of and ideas from Louisville’s LGBTQ+ community – Youth. People of color. Rural. Elderly. ALL are invited to attend the third LGBTQ+ Community Coalition Town Hall meeting coming up on November 10 at 6:30 p.m. at Safe Place Services, 2400 Crittenden Drive.

MORE INFO lgbtqlou.com

“Detroit ’67” Presented by Actors Theatre of Louisville It’s the summer of 1967, and the irresistible music of Motown is breaking records and breaking down barriers. Siblings Chelle and Lank make ends meet by running an unofficial nightclub in their Detroit basement, a risky business as police crack down on after-hours joints in black neighborhoods. When Lank offers shelter to an injured white woman, tensions escalate both in their home and in their community – and they find themselves caught in the middle of the ’67 Detroit riots.

Dominique Morisseau’s deeply-felt drama explores an explosive moment in a great American city. The show opens November 15 and runs through December 11.

Tickets start at $45.

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MORE INFO actorstheatre.org

Dining Out for Life “Dine Out” at a participating restaurant on November 16, and 25 percent of your bill will be donated to House of Ruth. There are 45 Louisville-area restaurants to choose from this year with breakfast, lunch, dinner and dessert options. Every person who dines at one of the participating restaurants on November 16 is helping provide housing, addiction recovery services, mental health therapy and much more to individuals in our community with or affected by HIV/AIDS. By simply enjoying a meal, you are making our community stronger.

MORE INFO houseofruth.net

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“Honky Tonk Angels Holiday Spectacular” Presented by Derby Dinner Playhouse This holiday musical follows the comic escapades of three country gals as they reunite for a Christmas show at The Hillbilly Heaven Club. The Honky Tonk Angels bring with them a lineup of Christmas classics and country favorites perfect for the holiday season. Performances begin at Derby Dinner Playhouse in Clarksville, Indiana, on November 16 and continue through December 31. Tickets start at $43.

MORE INFO derbydinner.com Christmas at The Galt House Hotel 2016 brings a complete transformation of Christmas at The Galt House Hotel that will delight all the senses!

Guests will be greeted with an all new larger-than-life luminary show – KaLightoscope – as well as the spectacular Winter WonderLane, the Holly Jolly Elf Show, an English Village highlighting animated figurines, a gingerbread house contest, dancing bellmen, shopping and much more! Events run through December 24. Tickets for children under 12 are $6.95 and $15.95 for adults.

MORE INFO christmasatthegalthouse.com Light Up Louisville Light Up Louisville, powered by LG&E, has been a tradition for more than three decades for thousands of residents and visitors to our city. Heading into its 36th year, Light Up Louisville will serve as a kickoff celebration to Louisville’s Holiday in the City. Light Up Louisville is held the day after Thanksgiving with the arrival of Santa Claus, who will help illuminate downtown Louisville. Events of the day include ice skating; shopping at the World Market; the Run, Run Rudolph 5K; the Lots of Lights Parade; and photos with Santa.

MORE INFO louisvilleky.gov “Cirque Musica Holiday Spectacular” Presented by the Louisville Orchestra Join the Louisville Orchestra for Pops: “Cirque Musica Holiday Spectacular”! A beautiful and exciting show kicks off the Yuletide season. Incredible aerialists perform feats of strength, skill and grace to holiday music favorites. This high-flying entertainment soars over the Louisville Orchestra on the Whitney Hall stage at The Kentucky Center for the Performing Arts on November 26 at 8 p.m. The Orchestra will be led by conductor Bob Bernhardt.

MORE INFO louisvilleorchestra.org

MODERN LOUISVILLE ||| November • December 2016

ANTONIO PANTOJA

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“The Book of Mormon” Presented by Broadway Across America Hailed by The New York Times as “the best musical of this century” and the winner of nine Tony Awards, “The Book of Mormon” is the blockbuster Broadway smash from “South Park” creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone and the Oscar-winning composer of Disney’s “Frozen” and “Avenue Q” Bobby Lopez. This outrageous musical comedy follows the misadventures of a mismatched pair of missionaries sent halfway across the world to spread the Good Word. Now with standing-room-only productions in London, on Broadway and across North America, “The Book of Mormon” has truly become an international sensation. The show contains explicit language.

Performances begin November 29 and run through December 4 in Whitney Hall at The Kentucky Center for the Performing Arts. Tickets start at $45.

MORE INFO kentuckycenter.org

“Alan Cumming Sings Sappy Songs” “Alan Cumming Sings Sappy Songs” is the name of the hugely acclaimed cabaret show Cumming premiered in 2015 at New York’s legendary Cafe Carlyle. He has since toured the show extensively throughout the U.S., U.K., Canada and Australia. In February 2016, he returned with the show to New York, made his sold-out solo debut at Carnegie Hall and released a live album of the same name. Cumming will bring his show, which features his unique, heartfelt, hilarious and sometimes bawdy style, to the Brown Theatre on November 30 at 7:30 p.m. Tickets start at $40.

MORE INFO kentuckycenter.org

2016 World AIDS Day Observance Join the Kentuckiana AIDS Alliance and host Amirage Sailing for this observance, which will begin at 6:30 p.m. at Spalding University with a catered reception by The Chef ’s Kitchen. The Louisville Gay Men’s Chorus and the Derby City Sisters will join the event, which will also include community testimonials from those living with HIV/AIDS. If you would like to add a name of someone we’ve lost who was affected by HIV/AIDS, please email chris@fairness.org. There will also be a 20th anniversary screening of “It’s My Party” sponsored by the LGBT Film Festival. Additionally, Volunteers of America will be on hand to perform free and confidential HIV testing, and Walgreen’s will set up a Wellness Station to check blood pressure, offer free flu shots and more!

MORE INFO facebook.com/ kentuckianaaidsalliance

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November • December 2016 ||| MODERN LOUISVILLE

02 DECEMBER

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Baby, It’s Cold Outside Winter Extravaganza Derby City Bears and Derby City Sisters invite one and all to their annual evening of entertainment and opportunity benefiting House of Ruth at 7 p.m. on December 2 at PLAY Louisville. Emcees this year are Dawne Gee and Brian Goode of WAVE. The night’s entertainment includes Louisville Gay Men’s Chorus, VOICES of Kentuckiana, several drag performances, an ugly winter sweater competition and photos with naughty Santa. In addition, there will be a silent auction as well as several wonderful vendors. And please bring gently used coats, hats, scarves, etc. for the winter outerwear drive!

MORE INFO facebook.com/derbycitybears or facebook.com/derbycitysisters

Light Up CenterStage Every year, CenterStage at the Jewish Community Center holds Light Up CenterStage, a wondrous and musical evening of entertainment and fundraising. The night features hors d’oeuvres, cocktails, desserts, a fabulous silent auction and, of course, an enchanting performance from the company of CenterStage. Funds raised from the night benefit the furthering of CenterStage and the artistic offerings it produces year-round.

MORE INFO centerstagejcc.org

“fabYULEous!”

Presented by VOICES of Kentuckiana This year’s installment of the annual VOICES holiday concert and kickoff to the organization’s 23rd season, “fabYULEous!” will feature secular music from the medieval to the contemporary, including the 12th-century “Wassail Song,” The Carpenters’ “Merry Christmas, Darling” and “Seasons of Love” from the Broadway musical “RENT.” VOICES also welcomes the Animal Care Society to join them at each performance, where two adoptable dogs will have their moment in the spotlight. Performances will take place December 10-11 at the Clifton Center. Tickets are $20 or $15 for students and seniors.

MORE INFO voicesky.org

Louisville’s Biggest New Year’s Eve Party Ring in 2017 at PLAY Louisville with Louisville’s Biggest New Year’s Eve Party! The evening will feature special guest Kim Chi from season eight of “RuPaul’s Drag Race.”

A balloon drop and champagne toast will of course be highlights, and the PLAY mates are sure to entertain revelers all the way into the new year.

MORE INFO playdancebar.com

Modern Louisville One-Year Anniversary Celebration On September 15, guests joined emcee Chris Hartman at The Hub to celebrate the first anniversary of Modern Louisville. Attendees enjoyed specialty Gentleman Jack cocktails, music by DJ Brios, hors d’oeuvres by The Hub and chocolate by Cellar Door Chocolates.

Photos by BILL WINE

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1 Congressman John Yarmuth, Shari Baughman, Laura Snyder, Aaron Yarmuth, Debbie Heleringer, Judy Royce, Remy Sisk and Joanna Hite Shelton 2 Aaron Yarmuth, Joy Thompson and Congressman John Yarmuth 3 Steve Squall and Kate Roach 4 Rebecca and Ghaith Aldammad 5 Lauren McCombs, Kyle Braun, Charlie Meredith, Remy Sisk and Mariah Kline 6 Chris Hartman with Sarah and Joe Dunman 7 Jeaneen Barnhart and Erika Chavez-Graziano 8 Lauren McCombs, Scott Schaftlein and Andrew Newton 9 Shaun Branham and Gunnar Deatherage

MODERN LOUISVILLE ||| November • December 2016

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25 for 25 for Fairness The first event in Haymarket’s Charitable Barrels: Whiskey by the Cause series took place September 14 and benefited the Fairness Campaign in celebration of its 25th anniversary.

Sponsored by Four Roses, 25 for 25 saw guest bartenders from the California-based Seven Grand preparing world-class cocktails, guests enjoying live music and the folks behind Fairness promising to continue the imperative work they’ve been doing for the last 25 years.

Photos by TIM VALENTINO

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Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence 2 Amelia Stevens and Annaliese Kerman 3 Trish Feldkamp, Jenny Carroway and Michael Powell 4 Will Roberts and Cassandra Charlot Mike Croghan, Bob Ferland, Ton A. Ali and Nick Wilkerson 6 Nicolas Bushong and Haley Adams 7 Patty Holland and Linda Fife 8 Rebekah Bland and J. 9 Shaun Kenney, Derek Pugh and Brian Walker 10 Brandon Fullen, Chuck Martin and Rodney Coffman 1

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November • December 2016 ||| MODERN LOUISVILLE

Louisville Pride Festival The second annual Louisville Pride Festival took over the Highlands on September 17 and was an even greater triumph than last year’s event. Various vendors, groups and organizations were set up all along Bardstown Road, and entertainment was provided by Mya, Taylor Dayne, Rayvon Owen and more as guests celebrated the neighborhood, each other and their own outstanding individuality.

Photos by CRYSTAL LUDWICK

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MODERN LOUISVILLE ||| November • December 2016

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UofL Homecoming Kick Off Party On October 21, PLAY Louisville was the proud host of the inaugural official UofL Homecoming Kick Off Party, presented by Kentuckiana Pride Foundation in partnership with the University of Louisville LGBT network. The event was the first ever UofL-sanctioned homecoming event to include LGBTQ individuals and the first event of its kind in Kentucky. Emcee Victoria Syimone Taylor kept the evening lively and helped to welcome such speakers as Mayor Greg Fischer.

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The Rocky Horror Halloween Party On October 22, PLAY Louisville was inundated with corsets and fishnets as Acting Against Cancer presented the third annual “Rocky Horror Halloween Party.” Featuring a live presentation of “The Rocky Horror Show,” the performance was accented by Chris Hartman as “The Narrator” and Karter Louis as “Dr. Frank ‘n’ Furter.” Guests also enjoyed a costume contest and audience participation all while benefiting Acting Against Cancer’s commitment to ending pediatric cancer.

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Joshua Meredith and costume contest winner Amber French 2 Molly Kays and Brandis DeWilligen 3 Riff Raff, Dr. Frank ‘n’ Furter and Columbia 4 Taylor and Brandon Codey Costume contest winners Chris and Emily Lamb with Julie and Michael Kimbro 6 Rocky and Janet 7 Henry Brousseau, Jordan Price, Marianne Zickuhr and Lynn Hartman Kourtney Burgin, Jessica Brown and Jamie Sparks 9 Janet and Brad with the Phantoms 10 Brad Shader, Richard McFarland and Christopher Kaelin

November • December 2016 ||| MODERN LOUISVILLE

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November • December 2016 ||| MODERN LOUISVILLE

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